Femme Talk
by Kaleyanne
Summary: A moment in the life: Noyze and Violet pause at the end of long day of walking to talk. Set offpage in 12.


Noyze collapsed to the ground. Walk, walk, walk. All day. And with no night on the ruined side of Earth they were on, all day was quite a long time. Joining the Marauders was fast becoming, in her eyes, the Remnants' worst decision yet.  
  
And they'd made some bad decisions.  
  
Leaving five people on the ship (including herself) was a bad decision. Not to mention wrong. Trusting 2Face and Yago had never been smart. Turning the ship around and breaking the Big Compromise was a big one. Allowing D-Caf to scare Anamull turned out to not be very smart. Anamull had died for it.  
  
"Are you all right, Noyze?"  
  
It was Violet. Pretty Violet, who was fast becoming not-so-pretty. Her blonde hair was tangled and dirty. Her nine fingernails were so full of dirt that, Mo might have joked, you could grow a potato in them.   
  
Noyze sighed. Violet was also smart. She usually knew what to say and when to say it. "No. I'm not okay. I've never been so not okay in my life."  
  
Violet sat down next to Noyze. "I know the feeling." She sighed. "I wonder, sometimes, how long it's been." She pushed a lock of her matted hair out of her face. "Was it really five hundred years ago that we were on our Earth? Or, are we still there, but insane and just hallucinating? Is this a dream?" She laughed harshly. "Or a nightmare?"  
  
"If it is, I'm ready to wake up. I might be late for school," Noyze replied.   
  
Violet laughed again. "It is almost surreal though."  
  
Noyze nodded. "Yeah. And... just... strange. Everything's changing. I mean, some things are the same as always. Jobs and Mo'Steel are always a team. But other things..."  
  
"Are different," Violet finished. "I know. In the beginning, it was Jobs, Mo'Steel, and 2Face together on the biggest issues. Edward followed 2Face and Jobs, and Olga and I, though never very vocal, agreed with them. And Billy was always with Jobs. Jobs was the only one who gave a care about him." She gazed upwards. "Everyone else followed my mother and Yago. Mother was just a figurehead, though. Yago was running the show. And he and 2Face were always vying for control."  
  
"That never changed." Noyze followed Violet's gaze. "Until now."  
  
Yago had betrayed them. He probably set up an alliance with the Troika. And took off in Mother. Tate had still been aboard, but they had no idea what happened to her. Most likely, she was dead.  
  
Violet must have been thinking along the same lines. "Tate always stayed around Tamara," she recalled. "You could tell, though, that she didn't like staying around people like Yago, Burroway, and T.R. She got along well with Jobs and Mo'Steel. And she was the only one who gave Roger Dodger the time of day."   
  
"I thought she was kind of nice," Noyze said. "I never really knew her, though."  
  
Violet nodded. "I don't think many of us did. She was older than most of us kids, but younger than all the adults. Yago and Anamull were closest to her age, and, well, did any of us ever have a high opinion of them?"   
  
Noyze smiled. She wasn't in the mood to laugh. "Not really." Pause. "Wait, what about Kubrick? He's older than us, isn't he?"  
  
Violet hesitated. "Well, Kubrick had the same anger-attitude problems that Anamull had... and he was never very eager to be around us, remember?"  
  
"True," Noyze said. "He liked 2Face, though. I think he liked her a lot."   
  
"Yes," Violet said wryly, "and remember where it got him?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Death as Charlie's personal pincushion."  
  
Noyze cocked her head, and looked at her friend. "You don't like 2Face." It was a statement, not a question.  
  
Violet sighed. "Not really. Never really have. She's not the kind of femme I approve of being. As in, she's not very femme at all."  
  
"Yeah, I think Mo said once that you were a Skirt."   
  
Violet nodded. "I was. And the proper term is 'Jane,' thank you very much." She added with a wry smile, "Not that it matters now, of course."  
  
"Of course."  
  
They giggled for no real reason. Just because it was the girl-thing, the femme-thing to do. Neither had had a friend to 'femme talk' with in a long time, and they both missed it. For fleeting second, they were five hundred years before, lying in someone's bedroom and giving eachother makeovers.  
  
Then the spell broke.  
  
2Face had glared over in their direction. "And just what do you find funny?" she snapped. "We could be attacked at any moment! I don't think that's very funny, do you?"   
  
Mo'Steel glanced up from where he was chatting with Jobs and Badger. "Give it a rest, 'miga."   
  
2Face just muttered something and moved away from the group.   
  
"Social, isn't she?" Noyze asked wryly.  
  
Violet frowned. "Truly? I'm surprised she hasn't tried to kill Mo and become the leader."   
  
Noyze shrugged, "She probably knows that would put us all completely against her. All she has left in the trust department is Edward. If she killed Mo, not only would we not trust her, we would be actively against her." Noyze grew thoughtful. "And perhaps, somewhere, she doubts herself. I get some very insecure vibes off of her."  
  
"I suppose," Violet replied.   
  
Noyze tried to change the subject. "So, what are the things between you and Sanchez?"   
  
Violet coughed. "Isn't that a shade personal?"   
  
Noyze smiled. "So there IS something between you two?"   
  
Violet groaned. "Honestly? In any other place, any other time, I would be so madly in love that I wouldn't know my own name."   
  
That brought up another subject. "Hey, Violet? What is your name? Your birth name?"  
  
"Tell me yours first. I hate my birth name."  
  
"It's Jessica," Noyze said. "Jessica Polk. I changed it after I got an operation to restore my hearing. Before that, I used Ameslan and this special hearing aid to communicate. After the operation, when I woke up, all I heard was noise. Noise, noise, noise! It was so loud!"   
  
"I suppose it would be," Violet said, "After hearing almost nothing your entire life." She sighed. "Well, fair is fair... My name was Dallas Lefkowitz-Blake. I changed it after becoming a Jane to Violet Blake, although I did prefer to be called Miss Blake. My father called me Violet, but my mother insisted on calling me Dallas until the day she died."  
  
"My parents were pretty nice about it, though they slipped up once in awhile and called me Jessie." Noyze fell silent. She felt guilty about her parents, and leaving her father on the ship.   
  
Trying to lighten her up, Violet said, "My father tried calling me 'Vi' once," she remarked. "I hated that."  
  
Noyze offered a smile. "I would, too. 'Noyze' doesn't have a good nickname, does it?" she asked. "Not like Mo."  
  
"We could call you 'Noy,'" Violet suggested, smiling.  
  
"NO!" Noyze exclaimed. "That would be a-NOY-ying."  
  
The girls giggled again, this time earning a reprimand from Nesia.   
  
"Will j'ou quiet down?" she snapped. "We try to sleep."  
  
"I suppose we should try to sleep," Violet said. "More walking tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah," Noyze agreed. She smirked slightly, "'Night, Vi."  
  
Violet returned it. "Pleasant dreams, Noy."  
  
---   
  
A moment in the life. Hoped you liked it. 


End file.
